The present invention relates to audiovisual playback, with particular application to content downloaded from a computer network.
Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Consumers are increasingly obtaining content online via downloading or streaming, as opposed to buying physical media. Example online services that provide content include the Netflix Watch Instantly™ service, the Apple iTunes™ service, and the Amazon Instant Video™ service. Although streaming and downloading may be similar from an end user perspective, the technical difference is that the downloaded content is stored locally and then played back from the local storage. Progressive downloading, where the playback of content may be started while the download is still in progress, further contributes to the similarity to streaming from an end user perspective.